Thursday, March 31, 2011

Banksy isn't the only artist to have made the Los Angeles streets his own. French graffiti artist JR has also been covering the face of the City of Angels with Wrinkles.

French photographer, street artist and award-winning filmmaker JR arrived in Los Angeles last week to exhibit his latest artwork, entitled 'Wrinkles of the City'.

The project showcases his art in the form of wall-sized black and white photos wheat-pasted on buildings both big and small. The unique public art exhibit featured close-up views of people’s faces and left the city’s street art admirers and aspiring photographers abuzz with excitement.

Friday, March 25, 2011

A Banksy-style piece of graffiti inspired by the Royal Wedding has appeared on London's Bond Street.

The image shows a black and white picture of the Queen holding a spray can as she finishes painting Will + Kate inside a pink heart with paint dripping down.

It has been sprayed on scaffolding hoardings outside a shop. The stencil-type style has led to suggestions it could have been created by international artist Banksy, the mysterious graffiti master famous for his witty paintings and secrecy.

But its presence on temporary hoardings rather than a permanent building has led others to believe it is a copycat. Banksy has recently tagged in California, however, where he sprayed an LA water tank with the words: "This looks a bit like an elephant."

The royal wedding picture has not been included on his official website.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

If you’ve been walking around the Mission, Tenderloin or Nob Hill, you might have seen huge block letters showing up on walls and shutters.

It’s the work of London-based street artist EINE, who painted the 26 letters of the alphabet around these San Francisco neighborhoods and painted one large work, "We Rock Hardest," above the KFC restaurant on Polk and Eddy Streets.

EINE, a.k.a. Ben Flynn, uses both canvas and city walls to play with large-scale typography and the English language. His early claim to fame was to make “Vandalism” look pretty, literally. He wrote the word on a wall in London.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

LOS ANGELES—A graffiti vandal who caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to Los Angeles property is trying to make it in the legitimate art world—but the city attorney doesn't want him profiting from his notoriety.

The Los Angeles Times says the city attorney sued Cristian Gheorghiu and nine others last year. The suit seeks at least $1 million in penalties and a court order barring them from making money off artwork under their street names.

The 34-year-old Gheorghiu has an arrest record dating back to 1999. He was ordered to pay $28,000 in restitution after a 2007 felony conviction.

But Gheorghiu now sells legitimate artworks under his tag, "Smear."

Some graffiti vandals, such as the British Banksy, have become artistic sensations.

Peter Bibring, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, says the suit violates artistic freedom.

Monday, March 14, 2011

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is presenting Art in the Streets, a major exhibition that follows the history of graffiti and street art, from April 17 to August 8, featuring the work of 50 seminal artists from around the world, including Fab 5 Freddy (New York), Shepard Fairey (Los Angeles), Os Gerneos (Sao Paulo) and JR (Paris).

The show offers a record of this distinctive public art, and of the influential artists and styles that have developed over the last half-century, from tagging to elaborate designs on subway trains.

Other New York graffiti artists in the exhibition include Futura, Swoon and the Fun Gallery's renowned artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who connected with the street art community.

Los Angeles street artists will also be emphasized, such as Mister Cartoon, RETNA, SABER, RISK, and Craig R. Stecyk III, as well as cholo graffiti and Dogtown skateboard culture. The show will open with a skate ramp designed by pro-skater Lance Mountain and artist George McFetridge.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

At its core, art is subversive, dangerous, anti-authority, and often times derided in the moment it is created. This was never truer than with the multi-talented street artist Banksy.

His recent splash of art that was spewed on our city is one that was probably sparked due to his directorial film debut, "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and its Oscar nomination in the Best Documentary category. The film would ultimately lose out to the financial meltdown doc, "Inside Job." The images that have popped up around the city consist of a young, machine-gun-wielding boy, shooting multi-colored, chain-fed crayons in a field of rainbow colored flowers with a smiling sunshine looking on in bliss in Westwood. Also on display was a titillating Sunset Boulevard billboard. Banksy drew an inebriated and happy handed Mickey Mouse groping the billboard model, while Minnie Mouse looked on with a cocaine-infused grin.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

GLOUCESTER TWP. — Since November of 2010, there have been over 30 incidents of graffiti througout the township, but police have finally made an arrest.

Osman Lopez-Rodriquez Jr, 19, of Hobart Drive in Gloucester Township has been arrested and charged with 32 counts of criminal mischief for spray painting the graffiti, according to police.

Police said Lopez Rodriquez is accused of spray painting the monikers “JR” and “JUNR” on various walls throughout the business section on Blackwood-Clementon Road. The graffiti was also spray painted on residential fences throughout the vicinity, police said.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

It’s a sad day for New York's street artists. Developers are planning to bulldoze Five Pointz in Queens, an icon of graffiti culture worldwide, and replace it with new high rises.

Since 1993, the former warehouse space in Long Island City has served as an informal training ground and gallery for street artists from around the city. The space is regularly visited by graffiti and hip-hop fans from around the world, earning it a reputation as a street art mecca. Owner Jerry Wolkoff has allowed the artists to use the space rent-free for over a decade, but not for much longer.

Within two weeks, Wolkoff will formally submit redevelopment plans for review. The $350 million dollar project will include two residential buildings towering up to 40 stories high. The project will include shops and a supermarket, as well as a wall for graffiti artists to continue practicing their craft, and studio spaces for artists Wolkoff has formed relationships with over the years.

Monday, March 7, 2011

LOS ANGELES — Authorities are creating a database that will be used to store photographs of graffiti vandalism, enabling investigators to track hot spots where such activity is on the rise, they announced Friday.

The city currently spends $10 million a year cleaning up graffiti, and last year painted over 31 million square feet of vandalized surfaces.

Clean-up crews are being equipped with smart phones and told they must photograph any graffiti they are going to remove.

Friday, March 4, 2011

A mural of a rat flying a kite that appeared overnight on the side of a taco shop in Oceanside is not the work of internationally know graffiti artist Banksy, according to a public relations firm representing the artist.

The mural appeared seemingly out of nowhere Friday morning on a large, blank wall on the side of a building housing the Bull Taco shop on South Coast Highway.

Nancy Willen of Acme PR in Los Angeles said in an e-mail to the North County Times Wednesday evening that the mural was not by Banksy.

The owners of the restaurant could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. A woman who answered the phone at the restaurant said it did not matter to her that the mural was not by the anonymous British street artist.

"We liked it even before we knew," said the woman, who declined to give her name.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Retna, the 31-year-old artist from Los Angeles, opened his first New York solo exhibition last week, and I got to see what it’s like to be an artist at the peak of his powers.

Retna, whose real name is Marquis Lewis, comes from a graffiti background. The nom de plume – derived from a Raekwon song – was originally given to a friend. “I gave him a sketch, and he went and battled some dude and he lost,” Retna said previously in an interview with Upper Playground. “He wasn’t even supposed to battle anyone anyway with my sketch that I gave him. And on top of that he lost, so that really pissed me off, so I took the name back.”

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Between Berlin and Halle, Germany, lies a 100m-long graffiti mural created by a woman that goes by the name of MadC.

If you travel by rail between Berlin and Halle, Germany, and pay attention to the passing landscape, you will eventually set eyes on a 100m-long (350ft-long) series of detailed scenes: a laboratory overrun by rats, a shipping port under dark clouds, galleons fighting through rough waters and a giant octopus, and a cityscape at sunset. The graffiti name of the artist, MadC, is ubiquitous.

“It's a wall for all of us who paint 10+ years and who put all their energy and heart into it,” says Claudia Walde, MadC’s alter ego, who painted the wall over the course of several months last year. The scenes are an allegory to the creative process and the challenge of painting outdoors in public spaces, and ultimately graffiti’s place within the city.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Generally, art is created, displayed and then sold. That tends to be the normal way of doing things. With the street artist Banksy, though, nothing is normal. Much of his work is displayed in public for all to see, and while it would ideally remain there as something beautiful as well as provocative, governing bodies don’t consider the outdoors an open canvas. Therefore, Banksy’s work regularly get painted over, removed or, in some cases, stolen.

That last case is the most interesting one because you can’t just drive down their street and steal a painting. Banksy’s work, however, is there for the taking. Stealing a Banksy with the express desire to resell it is the subject of How To Sell A Banksy, a documentary by Alper Cagatay and Christopher Thompson. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Streetartandgraffiti.blogspot.com is not going to exhort the illegal writing, but shows only a preexisting phenomenon.The artists's material is sent to us in anonymous form. We hold the right to be contacted by the artists in presence of copyrighted photos or in case of recommendations.